Holly's 3rd Birthday

Holly has had a wonderful 3rd birthday today and it has been lovely to see her understand that today is her special day. She really enjoyed opening her presents this morning (with the help of her older brothers), although she did prefer opening the cards before the presents!!! She still keeps getting her age wrong and when we ask her how old she is, she replies 4!

 

She has done very well for presents. He main present from us was a large doll and horse set. Brandon got her a toy pet cat and carry box which she absolutely loves playing with. Joshua got her a Frozen play-doh set. Then she also got some books, a bag, shoes and outfit for her dancing club and a horse statue to paint. From the family she has got about £50 cash, loads of play-doh, some lovely new clothes, a play doh table and loads more. So thanks to everyone who came to see her and got her cards and presents.

 

For this year we decided not to give Holly a birthday party as she really doesn't have that many friends just yet. So instead as a birthday treat we have got her tickets to have a girly day out with Tina on 29th December to watch the Disney Frozen on Ice show in London.

 

Decorating the computer cupboard with Holly's name thanks to some help from Josh.

The night before and all Holly's presents, cards and balloons are ready.

All those presents and Holly starts opening the cards first! What kid does that?????

Wow that present is almost as big as Holly herself.

The play-doh set that Joshua got for his little sister.

Brandon and Joshua helping her open her Disney Frozen night light and sounds book set.

Holly's new toy horse set.

A very happy little girl showing off all her wonderful presents.

She picked out this princess castle birthday cake but then decided she didn't like it. I knew we should have stuck with a simple chocolate cake.

Such a big girl, no longer our baby. She had enough huff and puff this year to blow out her own candles.

Later in the evening Joshua sat down with Holly to help her paint her model horse.

Cheeky little Holly, she absolutely loves anything to do with painting, cutting and play-doh.

In Line Skating Progress

Thanks to Matt for coming around and helping Joshua out with the basics of his in line skates. He has had them over a month now and really lacks confidence and has hardly used them. So it was good to see someone with the skating experience of Matt giving him some guidance and making a lot more progress with him that I ever achieved. I think he just needs to get out on them as often as possible now to practise and get more and more confident.

 



 

Auntie Lisa and Matt helping Joshua learning the basics of skating.

 

 

Slowly getting confident and starting to not hold on as he takes small steps.

 

Getting braver as he no longer hugs the bushes ready to grab on when he falls. I think I need to get him some wrist guards though, just in case!

 

 

 

Holly's Stage 2 Car Seat

Today Holly enjoyed an early Birthday present as we let her have her new Disney Frozen Stage 2 car seat. She has outgrown her baby seat and it has become more and more of a struggle to get her in it. She picked this chair out herself preferring the Frozen one over the Minnie Mouse version. 

Holly's new Disney Frozen stage 2 car seat.

 

That's a very happy little girl and looking so grown up.

  

All 3 kiddies in the back of the car.

 

The chair is obviously very comfortable as she fell asleep in it after a tiring shopping trip.

School Photos 2016

This years school photos look absolutely amazing and as usual we were completely spoilt for choice. We have ordered 3 photo's which have not yet arrived and then got to chose two digital prints as free photo's from the sittings. I think its great that siblings can join in with the school pictures so we can get Josh, Brandon and Holly all together. 

 

I absolutely love this picture of our 3 kids. Their smiles are priceless.

Our second free digital picture was one of just the two boys.

Holly's Red Hat Swimming Award

Not to be outdone by Brandon, Holly has progressed from the baby swimming class to stage 1 and has had her first lesson in her new class already. She now has to wear a red swimming hat and absolutely loves her new teacher and being a big girl going in to the pool without me or Tina joining her.

 

Holly with her first swimming hat ready for stage 1.

Will she keep her red hat on in the pool though as she hates any hair bands or clips and pulls them out straight away.

Basildon and Phoenix U7 Club Champion

Brandon has been going to Basildon and Phoenix Swimming Club for about a year now and tonight he participated in his first club championship gala. We was a bit unsure about what to expect as he had never done a gala, so he only entered the 50m freestyle and the 50m backstroke to see how he would get on.

 

He did absolutely amazing and smashed his 50m freestyle race winning it comfortably. He was awarded the gold medal for the 7 year olds and is now the club champion. He went on to perform equally as well in the back stroke where he was pulled along by older kids that were put in his race. Unfortunately on the backstroke we found out they are very strict on how you finish the distance and because Brandon turned as he hit the wall he was disqualified. Apparently you have to be laying on your back not turning forward at the point you touch the wall. So we were a little disappointed with that as his time would have been good enough for 1st or 2nd in the 7 year olds again and potentially a double club champion. We didn't dwell on the backstroke much though as he has learnt from this mistake and won't do it again.

 

 

Brandon sets himself up on the diving board ready for the 50m freestyle.

  

Proud to see Brandon's name up there as 7 year old club champion winning by over 2 seconds.

Brandon proudly showing his gold medal from his first gala.

Joshua's Birthday Zoo Keeper Experience Day

When we laid out all the options for Joshua's birthday this year he decided he did not want a Birthday party and instead chose chose to have a zoo keeper for the day experience. So although it is just over a month since he turned nine, today was his big day at Colchester zoo where he got a taster of what it is like to be a zoo keeper (including mucking animals out!). The experience was really well organised and as you can see from the pictures he got to interact with many cool animals. Due to the age limit the kids are not allowed to handle or go in to any enclosures with category 1 animals (i.e. ones that can harm you), but he still got to experience some amazing animal experiences. In fact the day was so good that now Brandon has decided he wants a zoo keeper experience for his birthday as well! 

  

Arrival at the Colchester Zoo on a very brisk wintry morning with beautiful blue skies but frost on the car.

Brandon getting some early hands on experience with a rather large bug (good job he hasn't been watching "I'm A Celebrity...." and tried to eat it.

Our 3 munchkins with a large giraffe statue.

It must be cold when even the penguins wouldn't touch the water!

Love this picture of Josh, Brandon and Holly in the seal viewing tunnel.

Riding a turtle back.

Brandon being eaten by a sea lion.

Holly looking very happy as she poses by the penguins.

Brandon with his favourite animal, the lemurs.

That's one big meerkat!

Josh, Brandon and Holly with the male lion prowling up and down behind them.

Holly has a little teddy lion and seemed to really love seeing the lions today. She didn't want to leave the lion enclosure.

Love this picture of the male lion prowling with Brandon's reflection superimposed on the lions head.

The female lion gave us a display of football with this plastic container and she had a real good left foot, but was somewhat disappointed that no onlookers joined her for a kick around.

I managed to get a great picture of an otter just as it was about to yawn.

My beautiful little Holly at the elephant enclosure.

Holly is finally as strong as a meerkat (just).

Josh on a zoo discovery. Such a waste as me and the boys would love this car for canoeing / cycling etc.

 

Holly and Brandon in the giraffe house (we did chuckle when we heard over the loud speaker that someone dropped a shoe in the giraffe enclosure!).

 

Brandon and Holly with the hippo's.

So the first part of Joshua's zoo keeper experience was to feed the parrots some pots of nectar.

Within minutes he was swarmed with parrots and it didn't take them long to polish off the pot of nectar.

Stunning colours on the parrots.

Next was a bit of hard labour as the kids had to brush the horses, but first there was the important job of scooping some poop!

With the poop cleared the kids get to work grooming the horse.

You would never guess in a million years what Joshua is feeding this horse? As a treat for being so good he eats Polo's!!!!!

Next up was Basil the goat where Joshua had to work with another boy to exercise him on the rocks. So one of them used a red target ball to attract him on to a rock and then the goat touched his nose on the ball. Every time he touched the target ball the kids rewarded him with a handful of food.

Joshua using the trainer target stick to get the goat to climb the rocks.

After all the hard work it is time for a cuddle and a handful of food.

After finishing his exercises, Josh had to walk the goat on a lead back to his enclosure.

Next up was hand feeding the Llamas, with Brandon looking on. One of the sneaky Llamas started chewing the hood of my coat.

It was pretty amazing to go inside the giant tortoise enclosure and feed them some kale and carrots.

Amazing close up of the tortoise showing his teeth and tongue.

Next was some rather large piggies. The kids had to prepare some chopped food and then wrap it in cardboard boxes to feed to the pigs. The idea of the box is to make it challenging for them to find the food and provide them stimulation.

Next was he wallaby's and amazingly Josh got to hand feed them some hazelnut leaves....

.....and then get a nice stroke of these lovely animals.

The last part of Joshua's zoo experience was the reptile house where he got to handle a 5ft corn snake (Holly and Tina wouldn't go anywhere near it).